Voices from the Ice, 1.3

Volume 1, Issue 3, July 2025


APS Mission Statement: The American Polar Society has since 1934 united people and institutions from around the globe and pole to pole to appreciate, celebrate, and further knowledge and understanding of the Arctic and Antarctic land, sea, and ice.


From the President’s Desk

susan adie

Greetings to All Passionate Polar Folk!  North of the Arctic Circle, summer is in its full glory! I have received reports from Ulukhaktok (Holman) Northwest Territories, Canada that migrating birds are “home”. The sounds of sandhill cranes are heard over the land. Snowy owl chicks have hatched with the adults frantically feeding and protecting their young. From Ny Ålesund Svalbard, we are hearing of record-breaking summer temperatures and Arctic willows blooming to provide food for pollinators, and soon, seeds for birds and mammals. The 24-hour sun is celebrated by all as the global rhythmic changes occur in the far north.  

With the summer winds, we send out our profound gratitude for our past, present and new members. Responses to our membership drive are slowly coming in. We feel confident that we are on the right track. With your continued support, our communication goals remain the same. The Polar Times will remain a hard copy delivered to your door. Our new quarterly newsletter, Voices from the Ice, will be delivered digitally to your email inbox (please confirm that we have your email address!) or you can find the newsletter on our  website, www.americanpolar.org.  

Built on the shoulders of polar giants, our primary mission, which will always be found at the beginning of our newsletter, remains the same.  Your participation supports that mission! To participate, contact us at info@americanpolar.org with your story from the ice and help us reproduce it here or in The Polar Times. We want to hear about the science, conservation, community activities, polar art or your personal experience from either or both polar regions, the Arctic and Antarctic. This is your place to share!  

Visit www.americanpolar.org to join and donate. Share in your social circles and your virtual platforms. We get stronger with each click. And thank you to all of those who have supported us through the years. 

Susan Adie, President APS


Table of Contents

  • SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – The Importance of Ice Cores
  • SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – Receiving Calls Around the Clock is Part of My Duties, But This One was Different, By Captain Michele Schallip, USCG
  • SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – Dramatic Changes at NSF Continues
  • SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – Too Many Rocks 
  • ARTS and CULTURE: Special Event: Screening of the documentary, Endurance
  • ARTS and CULTURE: Hell Below Zero, A Polar Western
  • GOVERNMENT – Updates on the May and June Meetings on Polar Governance 
  • APS Interview: David Sternik
  • You Might Like … 
  • Volunteers Needed and Thank You

SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – The Importance of Ice Cores

Ice cores are a “holy grail” in the study of earth’s recent past (less than 1 million years). This is because the “ice” being sampled is not frozen water but consolidated snow which began its terrestrial presence as a loose collection of ice particles with lots of atmospheric air intermingled. As additional snow buries each deposit in regions of permanent snowpack compaction traps this air in smaller and smaller cavities that become bubbles in glacial ice. Sampling of these bubbles, combined with the ability to count summer/winter layers (and dated past volcanic eruption dust) like tree rings, allows scientists to create a historical record of past atmospheric conditions. Contaminants in the ice structure also lend perspective. Although similar historical information can be gleaned from sediments, these are difficult to analyze when less than about 1 million years old. Thus, ice cores represent the best source for aspects of “recent” earth history.  

In the Arctic, a new record has been set for the oldest ice from a core in North America. While older, deeper cores have been retrieved from the Greenland Ice Cap and the southern hemisphere, this new core provides a geographically new site for comparisons between climate in the northern and southern polar regions. 

SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – Receiving Calls Around the Clock is Part of My Duties, But This One was Different

By Captain Michele Schallip, USCG

The trill of the phone woke me from a deep sleep, which I’d looked forward to after a long day. It was near 0200. A little less than 24 hours earlier, Healy, a 420 ft (128m) polar icebreaker, gently laid its tall red hull against a multi-year Arctic ice floe. Pocked with several melt ponds of water, it gave it a distinct Tiffany blue hue, and the white hills of its hummocks contrasted prettily. The floe was selected for the installation of scientific monitoring equipment that will gather invaluable data on the local environment, thousands of miles from major population hubs, yet with an impact on populations around the world. The use of ice anchors keeps us steady in place, but the ice can be fickle. With this in mind, I listen as the report comes in. 

“Good morning, Captain, this is the Officer of the Deck. We have a polar bear at the site!”

uscg healy

Quickly dressed, I make my way up one ladder to the bridge. Already arrived are several scientists and crew. Despite the early morning hour, the high latitude summer provides us with midday light conditions. A single mature polar bear moves about the research site with an unconcerned yet curious saunter.  We are in awe of its size. Towering over the largest of the buoys installed, the bear hops up on its back legs and paws at it like a toy.  A double paw jump, a quick bite at the equipment. Deciding it wasn’t a meal, it plops back down on all fours and walks to the large diameter hole drilled into the ice.

The bear sticks its head down with its backside raised into the air. Absent anything fun in the hole, the large off-white mammal lumbers over to some space between the equipment. Obviously, remembering it hadn’t done its yoga for the day, the bear starts with a downward dog stretch, shaking its shoulders a bit. From there, it flops on its back, scratching itself back and forth, not unlike my dog in the yard back home. 

The number of people on the bridge has increased, and the cameras are capturing lots of excitement. It is not uncommon for us to see bears as we transit from one science station to another, but we rarely get the opportunity to see them interact with scientific equipment. 

Properly warmed up, the polar bear stands up and makes its way back to the first buoy. Atop it is an anemometer, spinning into the wind to collect information on the wind’s direction and speed. Now, the bear is interested in this moving thing. He hops back up on his hind legs and one big chomp goes onto it. We all turn to the lead scientist to gauge his reaction. 

His response is rather nonchalant: “That’s pretty cool!” But I know he’s already thinking up a repair plan. 

Having spat out the now-broken anemometer, the bear returns to its inspection of the site. Lacking any more food possibilities, the giant decides it’s time to move on.  We watch it disappear over and then below a far hummock into the icy Arctic Ocean, having witnessed mankind’s effort to better understand its environment and conserve it.

SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – Dramatic Changes at NSF Continues

As reported in the 2nd Quarter edition of Voices, the Trump Administration has made or proposed significant changes to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its activities. 

Since that report, it has become clear there are at least two different visions for the future of NSF. The Save NSF movement is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save NSF funding for scientific grants. By virtue of its FY 2026 budget request that slashes the NSF budget by 56%, the NSF is taking a different approach, although it did celebrate in May its 75th anniversary. Regarding the FY 2026 budget, Polar Society Board member William Muntean reports that the proposed budget would cut by 16% funding for U.S. activities in the two polar regions. 
Additionally, the NSF Director resigned at the end of April and the NSF proceeded with finding a firm to manage the $8 billion, 20-year contract for a wide range of activities in Antarctica. Leidos, which holds the current contract, has chosen not to compete for the next one.

SCIENCE and OPERATIONS – Too Many Rocks

Dr. Thomas Smith, a marine biologist, studied ringed seals and polar bears for forty years, spending most of his life, he said, “in tents in the dark, cooking my own food, which isn’t good food.” Although nominally retired, he keeps busy assuring that cruise ships and oil companies co-exist peacefully with Arctic mammals.

A bearded, crusty, cerebral polar frontiersman, we met him on a cruise around the Svalbard islands. In conversation, Tom might mention the time a polar bear broke through his tent and he had to grab a rifle and shoot within a split second to save his life. Or the ringed seal that twisted the neck of a polar bear when the bear burrowed through the seal’s lair for an attempted quick kill. But our favorite is the tale he told when we talked about how the pioneer polar aviators had to hack out runways on the ice, like Roald Amundsen after a forced landing within a hundred miles of the North Pole in 1925.

“I hacked out a runway like that,” said Tom, who is also a licensed commercial pilot. “I started work on it, then gave it over to an Inuit friend. I had other things to do somewhere else. When I got back there, I saw that he put a huge curve in it (which was obviously not good since when have you ever seen a curved runway). I asked him, ‘Why? Why did you make it curve?’ 

“He said, ‘Too many rocks.’”

ARTS and CULTURE: Special Event: Screening of the documentary, Endurance

Portrait of Elisha Kent Kane by Joseph Fagnani

ekk

The Elisha Kent Kane Historical Society has just concluded negotiations with National Geographic for a members-only screening of the new documentary, Endurance. The film comprises two narratives: the well-known tribulations of Shackleton’s 1914 shipwreck in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea and the latter-day search for his ship Endurance on the bottom in 3,000 meters of water.

The expedition to find the wreck is led by Mensun Bound, a renowned underwater archeologist known by the moniker “Indiana Jones of the Sea”. His narrative, beautifully written in his book, The Ship Beneath the Ice, describes a mission stymied in its 2019 effort to find the wreck. Enduring brutal weather and critical technology failures, the tale is told in tones reminiscent of the bitterness and defeat of the great 19th century sagas of failed missions to the Arctic: the Jeannette, the Polaris and the Lady Franklin Bay expeditions, among others. Mr. Bound’s team, blessed by resilient funders and crew members, then returns to the Weddell Sea in 2022, emerging triumphant.

The EKKHS will screen this electrifying film at 7:30 PM on September 23rd, 2025 in its display hall, the Kane-Peary-Byrd Room, 71 West 23rd Street, Room 601, New York City. Per the EKKHS agreement with NatGeo, admittance will be gratis, limited to members of the EKKHS (information at: ekkhs.net/donations).

ARTS and CULTURE: Hell Below Zero, A Polar Western

Whalers played a major role in polar exploration, providing intelligence on the geography of the high latitudes and sometimes logistical support for major expeditions, such as the Antarctic forays of Richard Byrd.  Back in 1954, when it was possible to do so without being boycotted, Hollywood made a movie about Antarctic whaling, Hell Below Zero.  Actually it was filmed in England with a largely British cast supporting a Hollywood star, Alan Ladd.  Ladd had one of his biggest hits the previous year with the classic western Shane.  This time around, he trades his buckskins for oilskins, and the results, if not classic, are passably entertaining.

Ladd plays a Navy veteran who happens to be in Cape Town to settle a score with a crooked business partner.  Also in Cape Town is the pretty daughter of a whaling captain mysteriously lost at sea.  She suspects foul play and has resolved to go south to investigate.  Fetchingly played by Joan Tetzel, she catches Ladd’s eye, thereby inducing him to sign on for the voyage as well.  Ladd sets out to bring law and order to the Antarctic Circle and, in the process, proves himself to be as good with a harpoon gun as he was with a six-shooter.

The versatile Stanley Baker plays the bad guy, a deep-water version of the murderous sidewinder portrayed by Jack Palance in Shane.  The inevitable showdown is staged on a glacial shore where Ladd and Baker confront one another…with ice axes. Yes, really. Here are various options for watching Hell Below Zero.

GOVERNMENT – Updates on the May and June Meetings on Polar Governance 

Two major meetings related to governing the two polar regions have recently concluded. The Arctic Council, which is the leading international forum promoting cooperation in the Arctic, met virtually on May 12. Delegations from the eight Arctic States (including the United States), six Permanent Participant organizations, Working Groups and Observers attended the meeting. The main outcome of the meeting was the transfer of the Chair of the Council from Norway to Denmark. The eight Arctic States and six Permanent Participant organizations also released an agreed-upon statement that reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace, stability and cooperation in the Arctic, and acknowledged the role of the Arctic Council as the pre-eminent forum for circumpolar cooperation for nearly three decades. Council members were pleased to obtain consensus on the statement due to uncertainty about the position of the United States on various topics including peace and environmental topics and since the United States had blocked consensus on a similar statement at the 2019 Council meeting, which was the most recent meeting when President Trump was in office. 

The annual meeting of the Antarctic Treaty and Committee for Environmental Protection (ATCM) took place in Milan, Italy from June 23 to July 3. The 58 members of the Treaty are invited to participate, as are a number of non-government organizations, notably the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), and the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO).  Major topics that will be discussed during the nine-day meeting include selecting a new executive secretary for the Treaty, tourism, increasing environmental protection, and various logistics and operational items. William Muntean, a Polar Society Board member, moderated a roundtable to preview the meeting, which you can see here.

APS Interview: David Sternik, long-term member of the American Polar Society

APS:   You’ve spent considerable time in the Arctic.  What roles did you play?

DS:  My U.S. Air Force tenure (1960-64) included a Strategic Air Command (SAC) assignment with the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW) as a U-2 operator, and despite very high security clearances in Communications and Cryptographic operations, it was years later, I discovered our planes reportedly photo mapped both the North Pole and Antarctica.  My overseas tour was Thule AB, Greenland (Thule is now named Pituffik Space Base, Pituffik SB, Greenland).   The winter of 1962 recorded a Convair F-102A flight mission in winter darkness that literally disappeared off radar, while over the Icecap.  A C-47 search plane then crashed followed by a Kaman HH-43 Huskie rescue/fire suppression helicopter.  USAF then dispatched some RB-66s from Florida that dropped magnesium flares over the icecap: the F-102A and pilot had simply disappeared.

Although warned not to listen to the well-modulated English-speaking Soviet Radio broadcasts of the infamous Moscow Molly, she reportedly warned 332nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) airmen to close the doors to one alert hanger protecting an F-102A Delta Dagger interceptor as a “Phase Storm” began.   A particular individual at Thule was sometimes named during her show.  Another incident involved her describing Camp Century (Voices, 1.1) in detail, then giving the location of a dead bird lying in a certain area, inside the underground facility.

A radio operator went to the designated area and supposedly found a dead bird.   A coin toss as to her knowledge: someone at Thule broadcasting details by radio, or Russian psychics recruited throughout the USSR during the 1950s and 1960s: they had some that were very good.  A certain very-alarmed three-letter agency was aware of this activity, so the reader has a choice here.  My Arctic tour also included time spent at Corner Brook, Newfoundland, and Goose Air Base (AB), Labrador, a SAC bomber base.

Discharged at McGuire Air Force Base (AFB) the RCA Service Company immediately hired and sent me to the  BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System; Ballistic Missile Early Warning System | Military Wiki | Fandom) at Site II, Alaska: it was integral with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD; NORAD – Wikipedia) in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, and the overall early warning network.  My work was again, cryptographic operations and communications.

APS: You developed an interest in aviation during your time in the Arctic.

DS:   Initiated fixed flight lessons in Alaska but realizing the capabilities of helicopters in Alaska, changed to helicopter flight training at Boeing Field, obtaining a Commercial Helicopter license in 1971.  An Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) maintenance license was later secured at the Anchorage, Alaska, Community College.  Aircraft worked on included Japanese Airlines (JAL) DC-8s, foreign Boeing 747s with refueling/light maintenance and rebuilds included DHC Beavers, a Brantly B-2 helicopter, and salvaging small, wrecked aircraft parts with it.

Heavy all weather maintenance experience was gained as an Assistant Foreman maintaining seven DHC series 100/200 Twin Otter commuter aircraft with very limited parts reserves, thus taxing our maintenance abilities to the maximum.

During a tour at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, I was assigned to maintain a Grumman G-21A Goose amphibious aircraft (Grumman G-21 Goose – Wikipedia).  It also included changing one of its engines at a remote ex USAF Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) radar stations at Port Moller, in the Aleutians.   A year later, in an ironic twist, it took the pilot and one passenger to a watery grave near Port Moller.

APS:   You have written a remarkable number of articles for various magazines.

DS:   I have, as Dave Stern, contributed material for several other author’s books, and am published in five countries, and wrote historical aviation and aerospace Cold War articles including secret hypersonic military vehicle projects: probably around 70 articles.   This includes a series of articles on Arctic Operations for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) Journal: 30 plus years of Paranormal research yielded articles for Fate Magazine and recently, heavily researched historical articles on the Mars Canals history, and the Spiritual realm that were snapped up by the Editor of Paranormal Underground magazine.

APS:   You collect aviation related photographs as well?

DS:   The “paper” (magazine extracts), reference books collection is quite large with an amassed image collection guessed at a quarter million aviation and aerospace images from many sources spanning the 1930s golden age into the 1980s.  It includes reasonable coverage of historic military polar operations from Alaska to Greenland.  I have assisted several state libraries and museums in identifying unmarked aviation photos, donated a large amount of Bell Aircraft Company imagery/paper to the L.D. Bell Museum, Mentone, Indiana due to a great interest in their very unconventional projects history.  I wrote and had published, a soft cover booklet describing Bell’s X-15 proposal that lost out to the North American Aviation X-15 submission to the NACA (precursor to NASA).

APS:   What is your wildest polar tale?

DS:   There are a few but the most unusual and outstanding near-polar experience was after my late 1978 rehire at BMEWS Site II.  One fall evening (sun was then below the horizon) around 2220-2225 hours, I handled data on a Soviet rocket launch.  The Shemya tracking system caught it first, then, our large AN/FPS-92 tracking radar also detected it.  I then left to catch the bus taking us to the Administration and the Chow Hall (no relation to Purina dog or cat chow:  that’s military lingo for “Dining Hall,” for what was called “Midnight Chow,” as in “food.”

Outside Building 102, and waiting for the bus, as is my usual habit as a copter pilot, I always look up because as everybody knows, not even the Shadow and his Mom (usually baking cookies or cupcakes), are aware of what might be zipping by overhead.   Lo and behold, I saw an object that was alternately reflecting sunlight along its length, indicating a cylindrical object tumbling: it also seemed somewhat large, but realized it may not have been at very high altitude, or it was an upper stage that was large.  I first thought, oh, oh, a UFO but quickly realized it was the Soviet rocket launch entering a near Polar Orbital track, since it was heading towards Fairbanks so it was quite a surprise to other technicians also waiting for the bus!

I concluded that since the track appeared to be heading into a near or Polar Orbit, it was either a photo reconnaissance or a possible ELINT satellite.  I believe, a check of Aviation Week magazines several weeks later, (I usually read what I could find), possibly confirmed my conclusion that a photo-reconnaissance or ELINT payload passed smack over our radar site.  Had I not “rubber-necked” the sky overhead I would have totally missed it.  It also was quite satisfying to visually observe a Soviet upper stage rocket body.

YOU MIGHT LIKE … 

Many APS Members have a passion for polar regions and some of you may know educators who are passionate about the Arctic or Antarctica. You or they could join Polar Educators International (PEI) and connect over discussions about educating about the two polar regions. 

There are two organizations that are working to bring early career polar scientists together and support them in their efforts. The Polar Scientist Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) has been funded by the NSF and has an office in Colorado. The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) is an international and interdisciplinary organization for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, early career faculty members, early career professionals, educators and others with interests in Polar and Alpine regions and the wider cryosphere. 

Another great activity is Project SNOWstorm, which was launched in 2013 as one of the world’s largest collaborative research projects focusing on snowy owls (think of Hedwig from Harry Potter). They are staffed largely by a volunteer team of scientists, banders and wildlife veterinarians. Explore their site to learn about their historical collaborations, read updates and see the latest maps showing the movements of the snowy owls they are tracking. 

So what is under all of that ice in Antarctica? Scientists reported in March on their latest findings, called Bedmap3. Included in their findings are the mysterious and ancient Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in the middle of East Antarctica, are, just as the name says, completely buried. Great collaboration by scientists in different fields to uncover these findings! 

Would you think that fires can cool us off? It is summer, which means the return of the Arctic wildfire season (one observer based in the U.S. New England has reported to APS that they are already seeing the smoke from this year’s fires). Scientists are reporting how climate change models are being altered to take into account the effect of these fires on the global temperature. Their findings include the fires will slow warming by 12% globally and 38% in the Arctic due to the increasing amount of particles in the air and soot that darkens the snow and ice on the ground. 

Historical explorers and some not so old activities in polar regions, have often left behind anything and everything that might be inconvenient to remove. You may have read about the recent efforts to clean up the huge amount of debris left by decades of climbers on Mt. Everest. Here is a feel-good article about a clean-up effort in Antarctica’s Dry Valleys.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED and THANK YOU

Please consider volunteering if you have experience and ability!

+ Webmaster: We would love our website to be as active as we are at connecting and inspiring polar enthusiasts, so we would be grateful for your assistance. We use WordPress.

+ Anyone and Everyone: Want to share your icy stories with a new crowd? As you can tell, we enjoy sharing stories of member’s time in the polar regions and welcome your input.

For any individual interested in offering services please contact us at info@americanpolar.org. Thank you!  

And thank you to our volunteer contributors: 

+ Captain Michele Schallip

+ David Sternik

And also thank you to the Newsletter Creators: Susan Adie, Sheldon Bart, George Blaisdell and Bill Muntean